PROF KRISHNA Kumar, a top Indian educationist, prolific Hindi short story writer and a great researcher and academician of international repute and who is currently the director of the National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi, is visiting G B Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad on Tuesday to deliver the 'Silver Jubilee Lecture' on the topic 'Educational Riddles--Reflections on the National Curriculum Framework', in the Seminar Hall of the Institute at 3 pm.
There is a continuing debate over whether existing pupil's academic achievement and their culturally diverse national experience can be balanced in a national curriculum framework (NCF) for the entire school going population.
One question that becomes even more significant as we approach the new knowledge and globalised information technology age. Could the Indian national culture, particularly the national educational culture, be adequately represented in the national school curriculum and could it balance the educational information load in favour of more child centered, joyful learning process?
The national curriculum framework (NCF) addresses one of these central concerns in our schooling system to balance a standardized achievement norm for the diverse Indian population. The exercise needed to evolve a national curriculum framework is necessarily complex and multi-layered, in which Prof Krishna Kumar and NCERT under his stewardship has been involved.
Scholars, intellectuals and the general public of Allahabad will feel motivated to join the debate over NCF-2005. One can already find many great national figures like Prof Romila Thapar, Prof Irfan Habib, Prof Sumit Sarkar, Prof Yash Pal, Ms Teesta Setalvad, Dr Nivedita Menon, Harsh Sethi and a host of others who have joined the debate more in a partisan manner except for Prof Romila Thapar, who is more sophisticated and balanced in her treatment of the subject.
{{/usCountry}}Scholars, intellectuals and the general public of Allahabad will feel motivated to join the debate over NCF-2005. One can already find many great national figures like Prof Romila Thapar, Prof Irfan Habib, Prof Sumit Sarkar, Prof Yash Pal, Ms Teesta Setalvad, Dr Nivedita Menon, Harsh Sethi and a host of others who have joined the debate more in a partisan manner except for Prof Romila Thapar, who is more sophisticated and balanced in her treatment of the subject.
{{/usCountry}}It is assumed that intellectuals in Allahabad too would eagerly listen to Prof Krishna Kumar's talk about the NCF-2005 and be provoked to join the national debate. It is expected that the 'silver jubilee lecture' would give Allahabad's intellectuals an opportunity to make their contribution in a national programme like the NCF.
Curriculum designing has a special place among the diverse responsibilities envisaged in the charter of the NCERT.
As an apex national agency of educational reform, NCERT is expected to review the school curriculum as a routine activity, ensuring the highest standards of rigour and deliberative openness in the process. The 1986 National Policy of Education (NPE) and the 1992 Programme of Action assign a special role to NCERT in preparing and promoting NCF. The policy views such a framework as a means of establishing a National System of Education, characterized by certain core values and transformative goals, which might be consistent with the Constitutional vision of India.
The GB Pant Social Science Institute, Jhusi, Allahabad has taken upon itself to invite Prof Krishna Kumar, the Director of NCERT, to initiate a discussion on the NCF and invites all eminent citizens, intellectuals, professors, university students, school principals and headmasters to join the national debate.